SANDAKAN – Warisan and Umno’s grassroots members are showing a growing acceptance of the two parties working together as a pact in the next Sabah state election, said Warisan’s Datuk Azis Jamman.
Azis, who is Warisan’s information chief, said while he cannot speak on behalf of Umno, he believes the two parties would eventually make the announcement of forming a pact when the time is right.
“But for now, we can see (based on my tour throughout Sabah) that there is acceptance at both parties’ grassroots level for a possible collaboration and working together between Umno and Warisan.
“As we can see today at the division level, both parties can sit down together and conduct programmes together, and this shows that it is possible for Umno and Warisan to work together to face (Datuk Seri) Hajiji Noor’s GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) in the next state election,” he said when speaking to Scoop today.
However, he said the parties’ top leadership would have to discuss any possible pact and decide on the terms of the agreement.
“We are ready for any possibility,” he said.
Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, when contacted, said that he was not ready to comment on Azis’s statement.
“Not yet,” he said.
In January this year, Bung had declared that Sabah Umno was pulling its support for GRS.
Although the withdrawal did not ultimately go through, Hajiji used his authority as the Sabah Chief Minister to shuffle the Sabah cabinet, removing most of the Umno representatives from their positions, including Bung from his post as the Sabah deputy chief minister and works minister.
Since then, Umno and Warisan have become the opposition in Sabah, although GRS, Umno, and Warisan are part of the unity government at the federal level. – August 24, 2023